Former national athletics head coach Mike Kosgei would like Kenyan runners to embrace teamwork if they are to revive the successes of yesteryears in track distance running.
Kosgei said: “I have seen the country lose some races in major events, races which used to have a stranglehold on, all because there is no longer teamwork.”
Kosgei, who won numerous medals on the global stage with the national team — both on track and cross country — equated Team Kenya to an army preparing for war, saying there is no way one can win as an individual.
“If our performance is to improve, early residential training is necessary. It’s only during a residential camp that a coach can identify weak points and work on them in time for the championships,” he added.
He said there is only one gold medal in each event and championships are not places for guesswork.
“I wouldn’t say much about the team that will feature at the Africa Senior Athletics Championships but what I know is that proper preparations are key at all times,” he added.
He warned that it is dangerous to pick athletes directly from clubs straight to championships since for them to achieve results as a team, they need to bond and gel in a camp setting.
Kosgei said training and doing intervals together help coaches to evaluate each athlete to understand their strengths and challenges.
He cited the 10,000m as an event where the country keeps blundering despite having the talent.
“It’s all about planning and the reason why we have three runners in the event is to ensure that they assist each other,” he added.
Kosgei, who served Athletics Kenya as a coach for 15 years, said he doesn’t see how Ethiopians should always dominate the long-distance events yet the country has good runners in both 5,000m and 10,000m.
“I remember Edmonton 2001, where we staged a coup against Ethiopian legend Haile Gebrselassie and returned home with the gold medal courtesy of Charles Kamathi, who was little known by then. The reason why we won the medal is that I planned for him to work well with Paul Malakwen,” said the 72-year-old coach.
He said he believes in a tactical race and psychological warfare because even if one is in the best shape, he can always be stopped.
“I was an athlete before getting a scholarship to study at the Washington State University in the USA, majoring in social sciences. I came back and joined the Ministry of Culture and Social Services. I then met German coach Walter Amaya who wanted to train coaches and I enrolled. I got an opportunity to go to Germany to specialise in coaching and earned a major in Bachelor of Arts Social Science and later received an IAAF Diploma,” he added.
Kosgei cited the dominance in the country’s cross country on the global stage as one of his biggest achievements.
“John Ngugi won the world cross country title in 1986 and went on to win it five times. William Sigei extended the reign with two titles and Paul Tergat took over for another five years,” he said.
Kosgei said this was a result of teamwork despite athletics being an individual sport.